Avoid Clichéd Writing

Avoiding clichéd writing is a must for beginning writers. Clichés are a habit of speech that can easily spill over into writing. Spoken clichés are acceptable, but written ones are not unless they are used in a special way - to illustrate a point or used in dialogue to express a character's speech, for example. Writers should strive to express ordinary ideas in unordinary ways. Professional writers have learned this through years of effort and revision. For example, instead of expressing the concept of honesty by using the cliché "he is as honest as the day is long," create a new expression such as: "His eyes are as honest as a starving dog's." These kinds of fresh, startling new expressions will not only give life to your writing, they will brand you as an exciting writer with a unique and powerful voice. When revising your work, look for expressions or descriptions that come too easily (i.e., "blue as the sky, wide as the ocean, bright as the sun, plain as the nose on your face, etc.) as these are the cliches you will need to rework. Your readers want to be involved in new imagery that gives them fresh insight and new ways of seeing things. Using your own special perspective to create new imagery and comparisons will keep your writing fresh and will allow your readers to view the world through a lens that only you can give them.